Machines for manufacture of egg cartons



Feb. 17, 1959 J. A. M cALLuM MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURE OF EGG CARTONS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 2, 1956 INVENTOR AMEs A. MncCaLLuy M warm nT-rmn/EYs Feb. 17, 1959 MaccALLUM MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURE OF EGG CARTONS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 2. 1956 FIG4 INVENTOR (In MES A. HRcCALLUH ,M,-Wvar4am ATTORNEYS ted States Patent MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURE OF EGG CARTONS James Arthur MacCallum, Johannesburg, Union of South Africa, assignor to Gummed Tapes (Proprietary) Limited, Johannesburg, Union of South Africa, a South African company Application March 2, 1956, Serial No. 569,018 12 Claims. (or. 93-47 This invention relate to a machine for the manufacture, from roll stock of cellular egg or like cartons of the type which consist of a body in the form of a single sheet of card or the like adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the, body.

This well known type of carton is of somewhat complicated shape and it has hitherto been the practice to 'manufacture and assemble the means for feeding the body roll stock into a slotting die and thence to an assembly gate, a further support for a supply of partition roll stock, and intermittently operating feeding means for feeding the partition roll stock through a partition profile cutting die, and thence across said assembly gate and through the slots formed in the body roll stock, and suitably positioned guillotines for parting the two supplies of roll stock.

According to a further feature of the invention neither the partitions nor the bodies are completely severed from the respective supplies of parent roll stock until the partitions have been located in the slots in the body.

According to further feature of the invention means are provided for printing the body roll stock prior to its delivery to slotting dies and for suitably folding the body stock toform a doubled centre portion and side portions enclosing the partitions. I I

Further features of the invention will be apparent from the following specifications, claims and drawings in which: v V

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatical assembly of the front part of the machine.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of Fig. 1, showing the rear part of the machine.

Fig. 3 illustrates the method of attaching the partitions to the body.

Fig. '4 illustrates the form of the carton as it is delivered from the machine and,

Fig. 5 illustrates a detail.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the machine consists of a shaft 1 carrying a roll of cardboard 2 providing the body roll stock, and which is removed from roll 2 by continuously operating pull rolls 3 to form a loose loop 4. The cardboard then passes over roller 5, under a tensi'oning plate 6 and scoring discs 7 and through the printing rolls 8. The printed cardboard then passes under a'drier 9 from which the pull rolls '10 feed the card- 1 2,873,654 Patented Feb. 17, 1959 2. board into a loop 11 which supports a dance roller 12.

The intermittently operatedpull rolls 1-3 draw the cardboard from the loop 11, and difference between the continuous feed into the loop 11 and the intermittent withdrawal from the loop 11 being taken up by the rise and fall of the dance roller 12. The terminal positions of dance roller 12 also indicates the degree of registration between printing rolls 8 and guillotine 24 shown in Fig. 2. 7

Between the dance roller 12 and the pull rolls 13 the cardboard is fedover rollers 14 and under a former or kite 15 which folds the cardboard vertically in half. The cardboard then passes between the freely rotatable vertical rolls 16 which bend it along the centre score line 17. Y v

The double cardboard passes from the rollers 13 through the body die 18, (see Fig. 2) where the elongated slots 19 and semicircular slots 20 are formed in the cardboard 2, which is then fed by the intermittently operating pull rolls 21 assisted by the rollers 13 to a position along the gate formed by the rolls 21 and intermittently driven removal rolls 22.

In this position, whilst the body 23 is still integral with the roll stock, the partitions 25 are fed into the slots 19 and locked into position. The body is then interruptedly cut to the correct length by guillotine 24. It will be noted from Fig. 2 that the guillotine has a slot 24a so that it does not completely sever the bodies 23 from the roll stock but leaves a small web 23a (shown clearly in Fig 5).

The partitions 25 are also formed from a roll or rolls of cardboard 26 providing the partition roll stock. In Fig. 2 the partition roll stock is shown parted into a number of strips 27 but this stock may be slit from one or more rolls as it is fed from the supporting shaft 28.

The strips 27 are fed continuously from the shaft 28 by feed rollers 22 into a sleek loop 30 whence they pass over idler roller 31 and through a profiling die body 32 where they are cut to the required shape but not parted from the parent stock. The strips 27 are drawn intermittently through the die body 32 and fed through the slots 19 in the body 23 by mean of a feed box 33 cohsisting of a bank of intermittently operating feed rollers 34. If desired to avoid the tension on the portions of strips 27 which have been weakened by being cut to shape; the positions of the die 32 and feed box 33 may the parent stock is fed into position A with the curved surface 36 intersecting the centre of body 23. Each leading partition 25 is then cut from the parent stock by guillotine 35 and the bars 37, 38 operated by the cams 39,

40 move downwardly. The earns 39, 40 are so arranged that the bar 37 initially moves in advance of bar 38 cansing the partition 25 to tilt downwardly to the left. The to the curved surface 36 bearing against the bottom of slot 19 in body 23 the partition will also move to the left as it is pushed downwardly this lateral movement being limited by the stop plate 41 as shown in the'position B. As the toe 42 of partition 25 approaches the semicircular slot 20 the downward movement of bar 33 is accelerated by cam 40 in relation to the movement of bar 37', swinging partition 25 to a horizontal position 'with the toe 42 entered into the slot 20, thus locking partition 25 to body 23, as shown in position C. The bars 37, 38 are then allowed by cams 39, 40 to lift and the cycle is repeated when the next body 23 has moved into position.

Referring again to Fig. 2 after the partitions 25 have been locked in the body 23 the latter is removed from the gate by rollers 22, the partitions 25 being swung into a ,position substantially parallel with the length of the body 23 by a series of deflectors 43 attached to stop plate 41. For the sake of clarity only one of such deflectors 43 is shown in Fig. 2.

The sides 44, of the body 23 are then folded down- .wardly along the score lines 45 by a separator 46. This is illustrated in Fig. 5, in which it will be seen that the separator 46 consists of a doubled strip with the toe 47 positioned in line with the web 23a uncut by guillotine 24. The toe 47 actually projects through the slot 24a in guillotine 24. The rear end of the separator 46 is flared outwardly as illustrated, to fold outwardly the sides 44 of the body 23.

The rollers 22 operate at a higher speed than rollers 21 so that they act to pull the body 23 away from the parent stock and sever the Web 23a so that only at this stage is the body 23 fully separated from the parent stock. The final folding of the sides 44 to embrace the partitions 25 is effected by a folding device consisting for example of a vertically reciprocating pair of plates 48 positioned at a suitable angle to each other to eflect the folding operation. The final folding may also be effected by the normal type of race through which the body 23 would be fed continuously. I

Thereafter the intermittently operating rolls 49 feed the completed cartons in the form shown in Fig. 4 to a stacker consisting of a horizontal reciprocating plate 50 which pushes the cartons into the hopper 51.

It will be appreciated that in order to obtain a continuous production of cartons from the machine the operation of the various parts must be synchronised.

In Figs. 1 and 2 some of the various drive shaft levers and the like have been omitted for the sake of clarity but as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the pull rolls 3 and and printing rolls 8 are driven through bevel gears 52 from the continuously running shaft 53. The punches 54, 55 operating in the die bodies 18 and 32 are operated through eccentrics 56 and 60.

The intermittently rotating rollers 13, 21 and 22, 49, 74 and 75 are connected to shaft 61 which is intermittently rotated by a rack, pinion and ratchet drive 62, the rack 63 being connected to a crank 64 on a continuously running gearwheel 65 which is geared to shaft 53. The intermittently operating rollers 34 are similarly driven through gearwheel 66, crank 67, rack pinion and ratchet drive 68 and shaft 69.

The guillotine 24, folding plates 48 and stacker 50 are conveniently reciprocated by suitable levers operated by cams 7t), 71 and 72 respectively mounted on continuously running shaft 73 connected by a suitable drive to shaft 53.

It will be clear that any conventional means may be used other than those illustrated to effect the continuous, reciprocating and intermittent movements of the various parts of the machine.

I claim:

1. A machine for manufacturing from a supply of body roll stock and a separate supply of partition roll stock cellular cartons of the type which consist each of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the body said machine comprising an assembly gate, means for forming a plurality of slots through and intermittently feeding from the supply of body roll stock a continuous doubled length of sheet material for operative positioning of successive portions thereof in said assembly gate, means for synchronously and intermittently feeding from the partition roll stock a plurality of further continuous lengths of sheet material and simultaneously inserting the free ends of said lengths transversely through respective slots, parting devices operating synchronously with the feeding means and subsequent to such insertion of the free ends of said lengths of partition stock for parting the two supplies of roll stock to form separate body portions and partitions, and an assembly device operating synchronously with the feeding means and acting to press the partitions into engagement with the slots in the doubled sheet material.

2. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which said parting devices for parting the two supplies of roll stock include guillotines, positioned adjacent to the parts of the gate into which the supplies of roll stock are fed and means for operating said guillotines synchronously with the feeding means.

3. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which said intermittently operated feeding means comprise a series of interconnected and intermittently rotated rollers.

4. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the means for parting the bodies from the body roll stock consists of a guillotine shaped to sever the body roll stock partially and intermittently operated feed rolls positioned to feed the incompletely severed body across the assembly gate and further synchronously and intermittently operated rolls positioned to withdraw the body from the gate said further rolls operating at a speed sufiiciently high to sever said body finally from the roll stock.

5. A machine for manufacturing from a supply of body roll stock and a separate supply of partition roll stock cellular cartons of the type which consist each of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the body, said machine comprising an assembly gate, means for forming a plurality of slots through and intermittently feeding from the supply of body roll stock a continuous doubled length of sheet material for operative positioning of successive portions thereof in said assembly gate, means for cutting to shape and synchronously and intermittently feeding, from the partition roll stock a plurality of further continuous lengths of sheet material, a guillotine shaped to sever the body roll stock partially after operative positioning thereof relative to said assembly gate, and intermittently operated feed rolls positioned to feed the incompletely severed body across the assembly gate, and further synchronously and intermittently operated rolls positioned to withdraw the body from the gate, said further rolls operating at a speed suflicient to sever said body from the roll stock, a separator positioned to fit between the doubled body roll stock with the front portion of the separator in line with the portion of the body unsevered by the guillotine and passing through said guillotines, an outwardly flared rear end to said separator for bending the top portions of the body outwardly, means for simultaneously inserting the free ends of a plurality of said continuous lengths of the partition roll stock material through the slots in said partitions of the body roll stock within the assembly gate, and a vertically reciprocating assembly device operated synchronously with the feeding means and acting to press the partitions into a locked position in the slots in the doubled sheet material.

6. A machine for manufacturing from two supplies of roll stock cellular cartons of the type which consist each of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the body, said machine comprising an assembly gate, means for slotting and intermittently feeding from a supply of body roll stock portions of a continuous doubled length of sheet material for successive operative positioning in said assembly gate, means for cutting to shape and synchronously and intermittently feeding from partition roll stock a plurality of further continuous lengths of sheet material and for simultaneously inserting the free ends of said lengths transversely through a corresponding plurality of the respective slots in said body roll stock, a pair of guillotines for parting the two supplies of roll stock and positioned one adjacent to each part of the gate into which the supplies of roll stock are fed, means for operating said guillotines synchronously with the feeding means to cut from the supplies of stock the portions positioned in said gate and inserted through said slots respectively, the portions inserted through said slots forming partitions, a pair of vertically reciprocating members to press the partitions into a locked position in the slots in the doubled sheet material, and means for operating said members so that the one descends in advance of the other in the initial part of its downward travel to tilt the partitions to one side and both members terminate their downward movement on a level substantially parallel to the bottom of the doubled sheet material.

7. A machine for manufacturing from two supplies of roll stock cellular cartons of the type which consist each of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the body, said machine comprising an assembly gate, means for intermittently feeding from a supply of body roll stock a continuous doubled length of slotted sheet material for operative positioning of successive portions of said material in said assembly gate, means for cutting to shape and synchronously and intermittently feeding from partition roll stock, a plurality of further continuous lengths of sheet material, and for inserting the free end portions of said further lengths simultaneously through the slots in said portions of the body roll stock positioned in said gate, parting devices operating synchronously with the feeding means for parting the two supplies of roll stock to form separate body portions and partitions, and a vertically reciprocating assembly device operating synchronously with the feeding means and acting to press the partitions into a locked position in the slots in the doubled sheet material, a former in advance of the assembly gate to double the body roll stock and a slotting die operating synchronously with the feeding means to punch slots in the doubled body roll stock.

8. A machine in accordance with claim 7 in which said cutting means for said partition roll stock include a profiling die and means for operating said die synchronously with the feeding means to cut the profile of the partition roll stock without parting it into separate portions.

9. A machine in accordance with claim 7 including in advance of said former a shaft for carrying the body roll stock, means for continuously scoring said roll stock, a printing roll and a dryer to continuously print and dry said roll stock.

10. A machine for manufacturing from two supplies of roll stock cellular cartons of the type which consist each of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking with the body, said machine comprising an assembly gate, means for slotting and inter-v mittently feeding from a supply of body roll stock a continuous doubled length of sheet material, for operative positioning of successive portions thereof in said assembly gate, means for cutting to shape and synchronously and intermittently feeding from partition roll stock further lengths of sheet material and simultaneously inserting the free end portions of said further lengths transversely through the slotted portions of the body roll stock, a guillotine positioned to sever said free end portions of sheet material projecting through the slotted portions of the body, a further guillotine positioned and shaped partially to sever the portion of said body roll stock through which the said free end portions are inserted, intermittently operated feed rolls positioned to feed the incompletely severed body across the assembly gate, further synchronously and intermittently operated rolls positioned to withdraw the body from the gate, said further rolls operating at a speed sufiiciently high to sever said body finally from the body roll stock, at least one deflector to turn the partitions substantially parallel to the body and a folding device to fold the sides of the body over the partitions.

11. A machine in accordance with claim 10 in which said folding device comprises a pair of oppositely disposed plates and means to vertically reciprocate said plates synchronously with the feeding means.

12. A process for manufacturing cellular cartons each consisting of a body in the form of a length of sheet material adapted to be folded to form cellular compartments divided by transverse partitions fitting through slots in the body and interlocking therewith in which two supplies of roll stock are shaped by cutting to form said bodies and partitions and said bodies and partitions are assembled and then severed from the roll stock after the partitions are located in the bodies.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,897,654 Pfeiifer et al. Feb. 14, 1933 2,195,916 Brown et al. Apr. 2, 1940 2,636,423 Cunningham Apr. 28, 1953 2,642,786 Gilchrist June 23, 1953 2,655,842 Baumgartner Oct. 24, 1953 2,675,230 Parker et al. Apr. 13, 1954 2,746,362 Vahle May 22, 1956 

